Atonement
by pondlilyrue
Summary: Post-Hunger Games, Pre-Catching Fire. Katniss misses Peeta and asks him to meet her near the Meadow where they talk and find each other. -PeetaKatniss


**Atonement**

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend_

_Somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life_

* * *

She began to doubt herself.

Fear crept up into her conscience as she pondered what she was going to say to him. She hasn't seen him since the cameras left, and they could drop the star-crossed lovers act. Whenever he crept up into her peripheral vision, he would turn and walk in the opposite direction with a hollow mask of indifference on his handsome face. Her throat always constricted at the thought that she put that look of sadness in his visage. It was all her fault, and she knew it.

Katniss wondered if he would even come. She knew she did not deserve forgiveness for the manipulation she had practiced on him, but she deserved to be heard out at least. She didn't actually know that it wasn't an act, and she assumed that he wasn't in love with her either because she thought that his heart belonged to some town girl with blonde hair and blue eyes like his.

Peeta proved her wrong, of course. He had a habit of doing so with his purity of heart and sweetest of moments. He disarmed Katniss in a way no one else had ever done. He opened her up and caused her to go all soft on him because she had a soft side for Peeta Mellark. Those thoughts haunted her as she trudged up to the spot in the Meadow where they agreed to meet.

She chose the woods as a meeting place because it was a place where she felt secure, and thoughts of the Capitol didn't haunt her when the sky was blue, and the flowers were a bright yellow. Katniss tightened her jacket around her waist as she tried to calm down the nerves that were threatening to haunt her. It was just Peeta.

He had every right to be angry, and she had a bad feeling that there might be some raised voices in this conversation. Then she saw him – ashy blonde hair that fell in waves over his forehead, clean cerulean eyes, prosthetic leg and a stony look to his face. Katniss swallowed hard and chose her words carefully.

"Thank you for coming," she said slowly. Peeta looked her up and down, cleared his throat and nodded at her. She knew there was no room for small talk in this conversation, so she decided to go straight to the point. "I didn't know what it was like for you. I mean, I thought you knew that it was an act."

Peeta stared at a shard of grass that he just plucked from the ground and he let out a bitter humorless laugh. "I didn't know you were that good of an actress. Come on, Katniss. I was stupid and crushing on you, so I wanted to believe it was real, and I let myself believe it." She felt guilt like she never felt it before creep up to her throat. She let a pregnant silence fall as she collected her thoughts.

Katniss was a prideful and a very defensive person, and she knew it. She didn't like the way Peeta was making her feel -vulnerable, guilty, sad. She attempted to justify herself. "Peeta.. but, I thought that in the interview, it was just a strategy and..." she shook her head slowly.

Peeta looked up, a flash of anger in his usually kind eyes. "Are you saying I _started _it? Katniss, this all started the day I first saw you. This isn't a strategy to me. I said what I said in the interview to give you an edge and keep you safe. I'm not saying it doesn't make what I said real though." He didn't meet her eyes as he raised his voice slightly, and Katniss tried to placate him.

"I'm really sorry, Peeta," She said softly, not daring to look up from the bright yellow dandelions along the side of the path. The beautiful flowers reminded her of the pure hope he gave her when he was just a boy, and she was just a girl, and they weren't thrust into this terrible game.

Peeta snorted, "You can say that again," he murmurs under his breath. Katniss knew she hurt him – she could see it in his eyes on the train – but she didn't know how deep the betrayal was to him. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

Katniss doesn't even try to say anything, she just shifted her intense stare to the dandelion flowers and tried to think of a way out of this mess. Peeta, eventually, broke the silence. "I-I'm sorry, Katniss..." he said quietly. Katniss stared at him incredulously – _this _guy, the guy that got his heart broken by her, was apologizing. She swallowed the need to laugh and raised her arched eyebrows at the blonde boy. "I shouldn't be treating you this way," he rectified, "I know you didn't know how I felt, so I don't have the right to be angry with you." He smiled at her. "Can we just start over... and.. be friends?"

Katniss couldn't help the hint of a smile that threatened to spread across her face. "Yes," she said quietly.

"Okay," Peeta said and shifted so he sat closer to her, "What's your favorite color?"

* * *

**a/n: **This little piece came into my head. Sorry for any mistakes; I don't have a beta. Anyway, since I ship Everlark so hard, I conjured up this little one-shot in my Sunday Morning mind (cue Sunday Morning by Maroon 5).

Read and Review.


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